Animal Care

You will learn about caring for a wide range of animals. Our Animal Care Centres and Rare Breeds Facility allow students to study in a real working environment and house over 100 different species.

As an Animal Care student you will experience all aspects of animal care from handling animals, feeding, health checks, designing enclosures and studying animal behaviour and welfare. Our qualified staff offer a wealth of varied industry experience.

At Northop and Llysfasi you can learn about caring for a wide range of animals. Our centres allow students to study with over 100 species of animals. Both centres offer different types of experiences for different occupations within the animal industry, where you will experience all aspects of animal care from handling animals, feeding, health checks, designing enclosures and studying animal behaviour and welfare with the different animals. Our qualified staff offer a wealth of varied industry experience.

Animal Care at Northop

At Northop we have a newly built Animal centre housing over a 100 species of exciting animals including reptiles, rodents, amphibians, invertebrates, rabbits, birds, aquatics and dog grooming facilities. The centre also has a Rare Breeds Centre which houses larger animals that are on the rare breeds endangered list Bagot goats (rarer than Panda's), 3 breeds of welsh sheep including Hill Radnors, pigs, Rhea and rare breed poultry. (If you wish to have a more agricultural experience consider attending our Llysfasi site). The animal centre also houses a large family of common marmosets.

Animal Care at Llysfasi

At Llysfasi we have an animal centre which houses rodents, amphibians, reptiles, aquatics, birds including poultry, and dog grooming facilities. As part of the programme you will also access the college working farm which has Farm enterprises in Dairy, Beef and Sheep. The centre is also home to our alpacas, guernsey goats and houses some of our Bagot goats.

Catered residential accommodation

Modern facilities at the Animal Care Centres

Work experience with local businesses or abroad

Educational visits to rainforests, zoos, aquariums and shows

Guest speakers and live demonstrations from industry specialists

Rare Breeds Facility (Northop) 970 acre commercial farm (Llysfasi)

Short courses to enhance further learning and employability

Community and volunteering opportunities

Looking for a bite-size course?

View Bitesize Courses

Begin your study in Animal Care and progress to an exciting career:

• Animal Sanctuary Assistant
• Boarding Kennels and Catteries Assistant
• Zookeeper
• Animal Welfare Worker
• Dog Handler
• Veterinary Nurse
• Education Officer
• Pet Store Manager
• Wildlife Park Assistant

and many more!

Full Time Courses

Looking for a full time animal care course?

Full Time Courses

Part Time Courses

Looking for a part-time animal care course?

Part Time Courses

Free Transport

We provide free transport to full time students aged 16-18

find out more

Apprenticeships

Looking for an Apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships

Animal Care Alumni

Stephanie Davies

Studied Level 3 Extended Diploma in
Animal Management

Now a full time Education Officer
within the Discovery and Learning
team at Chester Zoo.